HealthGrades says high-rated hospitals have 27 percent lower mortality

Healthcare ratings organization HealthGrades has released the names of what it ranks as the top 50 hospitals for 2009. As part of its research, it concluded that these facilities had mortality rates that were 27 percent lower than all other U.S. hospitals.

The study, which also concluded that top hospitals' complication rates were 8 percent lower, analyzed more than 110 million CMS hospitalization records from the 5,000 non-federal U.S. hospitals, dating from 1999 through 2007.

Winning hospitals had to demonstrate mortality and complication rates that were among the top 5 percent in the country, cutting across 26 procedures and conditions, over a minimum of the past six consecutive years.

To learn more about the research:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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